lesse desirable before another which to men doth commonly seem to be much more desirable The house of feasting is commonly preferred amongst men as more desirable to be gone unto above the house of mourning but here the day of mourning even the greatest mourning mourning for the dead is preferred before the house of feasting Better it is saith he to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting whereof he giveth two reasons First from the property of the house of mourning to wit for the dead It is the end of all men Secondly from the good use which the living will seriously make of his house of mourning and of the cause of mourning which he there beholdeth the death of some friend or neighbour The living will lay it to his heart Doctr. 1. It is better or a more desireable good thing to go to an house of mourning for the dead then to an house of feasting for the solace of the living Of feasts there be three sorts 1. Civil feasts where a fourfold solace First Eating the fat and drinking the sweet Secondly Loving and neighbourly company Thirdly Pleasant discourse and sometimes Musick Fourthly Increase of mutual neighbourly love 2. Prophane or riotous where the former comforts are abused and perverted First by Excesse in eating and drinking to gluttony and drunkennesse Secondly The Company swaggering and debaucht Ruffians Swearing and roaring Boyes Thirdly Instead of pleasant discourses Ribaldry wanton songs and dances abusing of the name of God or man Fourthly fallings out and quarrellings or else linking in conspiracy to doe some mischiefe 3. Holy feasts where First Gods institution or special mercies invite to thankfulnesse and meat and drink as before God Exod. 18.12 Secondly Christian company Thirdly Holy conference Luke 14.1 to 8. and so to the end Fourthly Increase of childlike love to God and brotherly love one to another Of this last sort of feasts the comparison is not put for Gods ordinances are more edifying then his providences Nor it it to civil especially to godly men put of the second sort of feasts Riotous For to honest and good men It is an house of mourning to be in such an house of feasting Psal 120.5 But here he speaketh of such an house of feasting as is contrary to the house of mourning Reason 1. From the nature of the occasion of that mourning it being the death of some or other desirable person in the family that death is the end of all men If the person dead were not desirable there is little or no mourning for him 2 Chron. 21.19 20. But if there be mourning all useful men will see their own end in his which is very wholesome to our spirits Deut. 32 29. Lamen 1.9 In feasting men are apt to put the evil day far from them Isai 56.12 Amos 6.3 to 6. Secondly In the house of mourning we shall be occasioned to take to heart what we see yea to lay it as a plaister to our heart Text Not so readily in an house of Feasting Object But doth not the house of feasting offer to our hearts many serious and savoury meditations Doth it not set before us First A spectacle of Gods bounty leading to Thankfulnesse Psal 145.16 and Repentance Rom. 2.4 Secondly The variety of Gods goodnesse dispersed in the several creatures Acts 14.17 Thirdly The wisdome of Gods providence preparing and gathering the meat and company from sundry quarters of the world Psal 145.15 Fourthly The large extent of Christian liberty purchased by the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.27 Fifthly The fatnesse and sweetnesse of spiritual and heavenly food a minori Luke 14.15 Sixthly A spurre to enlargement of fruitfulnesse after a Feast we expect our horses after well meating should travel better Answ It is true a Feast setteth before us many spiritual advantages But yet First A mans spirit disposed to cheerfulnesse is more exposed to lightnesse Secondly Sad objects make deeper impression upon our affections Thirdly The company at a Funeral are not so apt to draw our minds away by cheerful discourse as at a Feast Vse 1. To reprove Funeral Feasts for it maketh the house of mourning and feasting all one Vse 2. To teach us the estate of our nature God seeth it better for us to meet with sad and mourneful Occurrences then cheerful Vse 3. To teach us so to lay to heart the death of others that it may be better to us then the best meals meat better then a feast If thou art a living man lay sad objects to heart especially this of death more distinctly lay to heart First Death it selfe Secondly the causes of it Thirdly The effects of it Fourthly The manner of it Fifthly The subject of it In death it selfe see a spectacle of thine own mortality Josh 23.14 1 Kings 2.2 Wait therefore for a change Job 14.14 In the causes of it First Moral or deserving look at sin Gen. 2.17 Rom. 5.12 especially original sin Learne to mortifie that kill that which else will kill us soul and body Secondly Natural diseases see the evil of corrupt nature and life Rom. 6.23 Thirdly Violent 1. From Magistrates First Justly learne to feare such wickednesse Deut. 17.13 Secondly unjustly learn constancy to the death Rev. 2.10 Secondly from thieves and robbers and then learn 1. to walk regularly with God who else may and wil deliver into such hands Ezek. 21.31 2 If the man slain were godly learn to avoyd the misconstructions which are wont to be made of it Prov. 25.26 Thirdly from selfe either through 1. Distresse as Saul 2 Disgrace as Achitophel 3 Despaire as Judas Hence learn patience in affliction with faith to prevent all such evil In the manner of it First some die 1. suddenly Job 21.13 23 24. Hence learn first preparation for sudden changes secondly submission to reproofs Prov. 29.1 2. Lingringly Job 21.25 Hence learn not patience only but long-suffering Secondly some die distracted Learn hence 1. To commit our senses and understanding to God 2. Settle peace of conscience which wil keep our minds in Christ when not in our senses Phil. 4.7 In the subject 1. some die in sinne carnall persons and they die first Either as stones 1 Sam. 25.37 38. Hence learn weanednesse from worldlinesse which stupifieth the heart Secondly or presuming Matth. 7.22 Hence learn to build on a rock Matth 7.24 to 27. Thirdly Or despairing as Judas Hence learn to beware of sins against conscience 2. Others die in Christ and that first either troubled in mind conslicting with desertions Matth. 27.46 Hence learn To live by faith against sense Job 13.15 Luke 23 46. Secondly Or comfortably 1. Expressing their joy and confidence 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. 2 Instructing and exhorting others Gen. 49. Hence learn first to live uprightly and justly Psalm 37.37 Secondly Boldnesse in Christ against death Rom. 8.38 39. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. 3. Sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made
better 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth 5. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise then for a man to heare the song of fools 6. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of the fool this also is vanity IN Verse 2. Solomon had preferred going to the house of mourning above going to the house of mirth whereof he gave two Reasons before The first taken from the condition of the house of mourning it is the end of all men The second from the spirituall improvement which living men will make of it The living will lay it to heart v. 2. Now in this verse he giveth another reason of it 3. From the preheminence of sorrow above laughter Sorrow is better then laughter And this he proveth first from the benefit of a sad countenance by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better v. 3. Secondly from the preheminence of such men whose hearts are in the house of mourning above those whose hearts are in the house of mirth The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning the heart of fools in the house of mirth v. 4. Thirdly from the preheminence of hearing the rebuke of the wise which causeth sorrow above hearing the song of fools v. 5. the vanity whereof is amplified by a comparison v. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated sorrow commeth of a root which signifieth properly to provoke as Deut. 32 19. Now because a man may be provoked either to anger or to griefe therfore this word is sometimes translated anger Eccles 7.9 Sometimes griefe or sorrow as Eccles 11.10 Psal 112.10 and here Doctr. Sorrow is better then light mirth v. 3. Laughter expresseth light or frollick mirth For right understanding this point consider these points First sorrow when God calleth for mirth and joy and mirth and laughter when God calleth for sorrow and mourning are both a like odious to God Deut. 28 47 48. Gen. 4.6 Isa 22.12 13 14. Jer. 48.27 Secondly Godly sorrow and mourning and spiritual joy and rejoycing are both alike acceptable to God and profitable to man 2 Cor. 7.10.11 Neh. 8.10 Thirdly Sorrow for sin and upon rebukes for sin is better then frolick joy and mirth in vain company Eccles 7.5 Fourthly sorrow for outward affliction is better then light mirth for sleight occasions These two latter hold forth Solomons meaning and are the sense of the doctrine Heb. 11.25 Job 36.21 Reason 1. From the benefit of a sad countenance as it springeth from an heart seriously affected so it stirreth up serious affection meditations and conferences in the hearts of others A merry countenance is apt to stir up to loose and dissolute vain and frothy meditations affections conferences Reason 2. From the condition of the house of mourning it is a suitable object to the heart of a wise man His heart is there sad objects to the heart are as ballast to the ship making it go steddy whereas the house of mirth is a suitable object to the heart of fools v. 4. Reason 3. From the preheminence or betterment of hearing the rebuke of the wise which causeth sorrow then the songs of fools which causeth light mirth v. 5. Which may appeare 1. From the great benefit of wise reproofs They are as first Pricks to let out corruption Acts 2.37 Secondly Goads to stir up to duty Eccles 12.11 Thirdly Nailes to drive in and fasten good counsel Eccles 12.11 Fourthly Balm to heale sores Psal 141.5 2 From the vanity of fools laughter and light mirth It is as the cracking of Thorns under a pot v. 6. Not like the fire of thorns under a pot which is soon kindled and faire blazed But like the noyse which first is no good melody Secondly spends much fewel as fools mirth much time Thirdly soon decayeth and dampeth and leaveth both meat in the Pot raw and by-standers not thoroughly warmed Psal 118.12 58.9 So doth the mirth of fools Prov. 14.13 Vse 1. Against the chiefe good of Epieures which is pleasure Sadnesse is better then it Vse 2. To teach us contentment yea and thankfulnesse to when God sendeth occasions of sorrow and sadnesse for affliction Job 1.21 Object Psalm 35.27 Answ Prosperity that will best hold and least corrupt is that which is sown in tears Psalm 126.5 6. This sad winter Christmas as they call it is better then all the carnal jollity wont heretofore to be exercised at that time of the yeere Vse 3. For a signe of trial of our hearts where they delight to be such they are If they delight to be in the house of mirth they are vain and foolish if in the house of mourning they are wise Mat. 6.21 Vse 4. To teach us who are fittest instruments to dispense reproofs wise men v. 5 Prov. 15.12 The wise and the reprover are Synonima Prov. 25.12 Great wisdom requisite to discern first of faults whether beams or motes Secondly of the offenders how more or lesse easie to be wrought upon as the body in Physick Prov. 17.10 Vse 5. To exhort to patient and willing hearing of just reproofs A sound chiding is better musick then the song of fools It is an ornament if wel heard Prov. 25.12 as arguing humility wisdom sincetity or soundness Prov. 9.8 9. Sound flesh wil abide rubbing not so galled They are the way of life Prov. 10.17 and wisdom Prov. 15.31 32. Eccles 7. v. 7. 7. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad and a gift destroyeth the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Translated surely I doe not finde that ever the conjunction so signifieth in Scripture but as it is translated in v. 6. for so it is firly to be translated here Surely neither standeth with the Grammar or Logick of the Text no coherence will so be made of the sentence But translate it for and the context runs thus Solomon had said vers 5. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise then the song of fools This he proveth first from the vanity of the song of fools illustrated by a simile taken from the crackling of thorns under a pot v. 6. Of this was spoken in the former verse Secondly from the madnesse of the oppression of such a reprover To oppresse a wise reprover 1. makes a wise man mad A wise man whether it be 1. The reproved he wil grow outragious by oppressing his reprover as did Asa 2 Chron. 16.10 2 The reprover Oppression may distemper him Jer. 20.7 8 9. v. 14 to 18. Secondly destroys the heart or life of the Gift Gift cannot properly or Grammatically be in the Nominative case before the Verb but by Anomaly For it is of the Foeminine Gender the Verb destroy of the masculine neither is the sense so suitable here Thirdly from the excellency of the end of a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit the word of reproof above
Matth. 10.4 Gen. 11.4 9. Absoloms pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 was Columna Calumniae or as Lots wifes pillar of salt seasoning others but shaming our selves It is not faire Faces Buildings Clothes or Estates that can procure or preserve a good name Object 1. Christ excelled in all vertues and duties yet he lay under an ill name as a glutton and wine bibber a deceiver an enemy to Caesar Answ 1. He bore our sins and so our reproaches as a punishment due to our sins 2. It was amongst evil men as his profession was also evil spoken of amongst them Acts 28.22 3. At length he overwrastled it and got a great name Phil. 2.9 Obj. 2. But it is a curse to a Minister to be generally wel spoken of Luke 6.22 26. John Baptist is said to have a devil Matth. 11.18 Answ First Ministers that are faithful have special cause to provoke wicked men where their name chiefly suffereth 1 Kings 22.8 18 17. else wisdome is justified of her children Matth. 11.19 Secondly Ministers at length overwrastle it Matth. 23.29 30. Obj. 3. But even private Christians as truly godly are traduced Answ First Sometime they neglect their life of faith 2 Sam. 12.13 14. Secondly God prevents sin in them by false reports Thirdly It is but at the hands of wicked men Acts 28.22 24.25 Fourthly If it be at the hands of brethren it is through their Ignorance Emulation and Rashnesse which God at length will overwrastle Job 42.7 Otherwise God hideth the names of his children in the secret of his Tabernacle from the strife of Tongues Psal 31.20 The words are a proverbial Doctrine Doct. 2. The day of death is better then the birth day This is not the speech First Of Job in misery Job 3.3 Secondly Of Jeremy in passion Jer. 20.14 but of Solemon in his repentance This Solomon speaketh not only of some extraordinary kinds of death which have been of more publike service as the death of Christ Ioh. 12.32 Of Sampson Iudg. 16.30 Of the Martyrs whose blood is First The glory of God Iohn 21.19 Secondly the seed of the Church But indefinitely and generally of the death of all or any Better to the godly in regard First Of sin which shall then be wholly subdued Rom. 6.7 1 Cor. 15.26 If sin continued after death death were not the last enemy But in birth we are borne in sin Psal 61.5 children of wrath Eph. 2.3 Yea Newbirth leaveth much corruption still in us we are borne in sin but we dye in the Lord Rev. 14.13 1 Thes 4.14 Secondly Of misery which attendeth Birth Iob. 14.1 5 7. But death is an haven of rest after a sea of troublesome agitation and misery Iob 3.13 14 verse 21 22. Rev. 14.13 Thirdly Of grace which will then be perfected Heb. 12.23 1 Cor. 13.12 Iude 24. Ephes 5.27 Death is accounted an enemy to Nature but is a friend to grace we are borne uncleane Iob 25.4 Iohn 3.6 but we dye perfect Fourthly Of glory Birth is the seed time of corruption Gal. 6.8 Death is the seed time of incorruption and glory 1 Cor. 15.36 42 43 44. Birth putteth us into the hands of Midwives and other weake women Death into the hands of the glorious and mighty Angels Luke 16.22 Birth bringeth us forth into a valley of teares Death into our Masters joy Matth. 25.21 Birth into an estate of absence from the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 Death bringeth us into his presence 1 Thes 4.17 1 Iohn 3.2 Birth bringeth us to labour Iob 5.7 Death to rest Rev. 14.13 even Sabbaths rest Birth bringeth us into a larger and fairer world then our mothers wombe but death into a larger and fairer then this The starry roose of this world is but the pavement of that Better to the wicked in regard First of others Prov. 11.10 Secondly Of themselves though it had been good for them not to be borne Matth. 26.24 yet being borne the sooner dead 1. The lesse sin 2. The lesse Punishment Quest May the wicked then doe well to hasten their own deaths Answ By no meanes for selfe murther is worse then murther of another And besides so the wicked cutteth himself off from means and hopes of conversion Vse 1. Against purgatory to the godly after Death For then Death setleth them into a worse condition then ever their birth did For the pains of Purgatory as Papists describe them differ not from the pams of hell in measure of torment but duration only And what use can there be of Purgatory when no sin is left in death to be purged after Vse 2. To exhort to such a life as may make our death comfortable Meanes First Regeneration New birth Iohn 11.26 Phil. 1.21 Secondly Faithful and fruitful course of life 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. Vse 3. To comfort the godly against death by consideration of all the former benefits of Death Samsons riddle is now Solomons Paradoxe Out of the eater Death which devoureth all commeth meat and sweetnesse Object 1. But in death I lose all my deare friends Answ First If thou hast lived any long time most of thy dearest friends are gone before thee Secondly Thou shalt change these here for better friends there our best friends love us not so dearly as every one there Thirdly Thy good friends will not be long after thee Object 2. But what shall I doe with my poor children and young Answ Leave them with God Jer. 49.11 Object 3. But there is bitternesse and pangs in death Answ First So there is in Birth Secondly After-comsorts swallow up all griefes Iohn 16.21 Vse 4. To moderate the mourning of the living for their dying friends you rejoyced in their worse day their birth day why not much more in their better day 2 Sam. 12.19 20. Pharaoh and Herod solemnized their birth dayes Gen. 40.20 Mark 6.21 why should not Christians rejoyce in the departure of their Christian friends The dayes of the Martyrs execution were called Natalitia It is true we may mourne for losse of publike good Instruments to Family Church and Commonwealth and judge our selves for such sins as provoke the Lord to remove them but yet it is best for them that they are gone and best for the Church what God doth the death of Ioseph and Iosiah turned to the best good of Israel The bondage of Egypt wrought for Israel a more glorious deliverance And the captivity of Babylon which brake in upon the death of Iosiah instead of a dungeon proved a wine-cellar Cant. 2.4 Eccles 7. v. 2. 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart AS in the former verse Solomon preferred two things that seem lesse desirable above other two that seem more desirable a good name above a good oyntment and the day of death above the birth day So here he preserreth a third thing that may seem
A Briefe EXPOSITION WITH Practicall Observations UPON The Whole Book OF ECCLESIASTES By that late pious and worthy Divine Mr. JOHN COTTON Pastor of Boston in New-England PUBLISHED By ANTHONY TUCKNEY D.D. Master of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by T. C. for Ralph Smith at the Bible in Cornhill 1654. To the Right Worshipfull Mr. George Caborn Mayor With the Aldermen Common-Councel Ministers and the rest of my Christian friends of Boston in Lincolnshire Dearly Beloved THe large interest which I have long enjoyed in your favour and which you must ever have in my heart hath imboldened me to prefix your names to this Peece and with the more confidence of your acceptance because in it an addresse is made to you at once by two who sometimes were together your Ministers in the Gospel of Christ by the ever to be honoured Mr. Cotton in the Book and by my unworthy selfe in the review and Dedication of it Both now removed from you The one first to a remote part of the world there to plant Churches and thence after that happy work done to heaven The other to some more publique service neerer hand in which I humbly crave the best help of your prayers as you are constantly remembred in mine and that with more strength of affection whilst I oft call to mind those most comfortable daies in which I enjoyed the happiness of joynt Ministry with so able and faithfull a Guide and both of us so much satisfaction and encouragement from a people so united in the love both of the truth and of one another The first Chapters of both his Epistles to them I cannot read what Paul writeth of his Thessalonians but I think I read over what we then found in Boston They were then very happy daies with you when your faith did grow exceedingly and your love to Christs Ordinances Ministers servants and to one another abounded Although your Town be situate in a low Countrey yet God then raised your esteem very high and your eminency in Piety over-topped the heighth of your steeple your name was as an oyntment poured out Cant. 1.3 and your renown went forth for that beauty and comelinesse which God had put upon you Ezek. 16.14 How it is now with you at this distance I cannot so wel judge only I desire you would please seriously to consider whether the new wine or the old he better ever think that best which doth not intoxicate us into staggering frō the Truth and falling off from one another but so cheareth the heart as yet maketh us humble and meek and keepeth us close to God his truth ordinances the power of his grace and all those duties in which the faithfull among you formerly walked with God met with peace and at last reached heaven Such a frame of spirit and way I can remember was sometime among you and as oft as I remember it I desire not to forget to praise God for it What was then your blessednesse Gal. 4.15 And what then was I humbly beseech God may so revive and continue that you may prove a little model and fore-taste of that blessed Church which God wil make an eternall excellency Isai 60.15 and a joy of many generations This you and I have the more cause to desire and endeavour because 1. Miserum est fuisse it is a great misery to have it said of us that we have been happy Fuimus Troec fuit Ilium was but a sad word and it is a sadder thing for the Sun of righteousness which had sometime shone gloriously upon any particular Church or people at last to set in a cloud if such a light come to be darkned how great is that darknesse after the light is put out the room proveth darker then if it had never been set up and the remembrance of those former pleasant things once enjoyed but afterwards lost Lam. 1.7 added to and aggravated the Churches lamentation 2. And yet such a lamentable condition hath been and may be the lot of such places people which God sometimes hath highly honoured when they have grown fat and wanton together Bethel hath proved Bethaven Hos 10.5 2 Kings 2. Judg. 8.8 Jer. 7.12 in after times we finde young prophane mockers in Bethel and scornfull neuters in Penuel Goe to Shiloh think of the sometimes glorious Churches of Asia As Empires and Kingdoms so particular Churches have had their periods I have sometimes on purpose visited some places where God had before planted his Church and a faithfull Ministry to see if I could discern any footsteps and remembrances of such a mercy Prov. 24.31 and loe they were all grown over with thorns nettles had covered the face therof the stone-wall therof was broken down 3. And which is more sad in some of them never in others very hardly built up again God proving severe when we grow wanton and so as he removeth the Candlestick when we play or fight by the light of the candle set up in it Rev. 2.5 so he is very hardly induced to light it againe in that place where it hath once been wantonly or frowardly put out there are more hopes of recovering a particular person fallen by vertue of an everlasting covenant made with him although he may goe halting to his grave and never here again rise up to his former comforts and enlargements but a particular Church or people unless it be that of the Jewes who in the great Jubile after their rejection shal again return to their former possessions cannot claim the like priviledge of such a Covenant Jer. 3.1 12 13 14 8 4. The Arke never returned to the same place from whence it was in a way of judgement removed and the glory of the Lord when after its gradual removes was at last quite gone from the first Temple was not fully restored in the second till Christs first comming nor wil it be in this their rejection til his second I think there wil be found very few instances of Gods presence and ordinances long enjoyed by a people and after abused and rejected if thereupon lost easily if at all restored Jud. v. 3. the faith once delivered to the Saints is not wont to be received or lost the second time The reason is because a jealous God can least endure upon trial made of him to be sleighted in that wherein he would most commend to us his speciall love and ever account's the rejecting of such special tokens of it as a renouncing of himselfe 2 Sam. 8.7 They have not rejected thee but me And as the husband in the law pleaded some uncleanness in his wife Deut. 24.1 when he put her away so God makes account that we tell the world that we have found iniquity in him Jer. 2.5 when we goe far from him and walk after vanity and that he hath been a wildernese and land of darkness when we prove
vowed universall obedience which without a better heart they could not perform Deut. 5.27 29. As first when we presume to walk in the strength of it and not by saith in Christ Matth. 26.33 35. Secondly when we discern no defect in our best duties Neh. 13.22 Thirdly when we think we have earned any reward at Gods hand by it Luke 17.10 2. Righteousness of works of Supererogation Micah 6.6 7. works above what the law required in which also a man may perish 3. Righteousnesse of works of good intention as that of Vzzah intending to save the Ark by touching it against the Law 2 Sam. 6.6 with Numb 4.15 In which he died 2 Sam. 6.7 So Sauls sacrifice out of a good intention but against a Commandement lost his Kingdom 1 Sam. 13.12 13 14. See also 1 Sam. 15.21 22 23. 4. Righteousnesse inherent prized above the word Righteousness of a cause over eagerly maintained as in Jobs case justifying himselfe rather then God which was overmuch righteousnesse Yet this fourth may be rather handled as a consectary in the verse for no man perisheth in this righteousness though he may fall foully Doct. Excesse of righteousness or to be righteous overmuch is accompanied with an overweening conceit of a mans own wisdom and followed with causlesse destruction of a mans selfe vers 16. Solomon joyning this warning Neither make thy selfe over-wise to the former Be not righteous overmuch implieth that an overweening conceit of our own wisdome doth accompany overmuch righteousness And adding this Reason for why wilt thou destroy thy selfe He implyeth that these wil procure destruction and that without cause And therefore he asketh why Reason 1. Why it is accompanied with overmuch wisdome because it maketh us wise without the word and above the word which ought not to be 1 Cor. 4 6. The word is the rule of wisdom Esay 8.20 Reason 2. Why it is followed with certain danger of destruction because First it is ever joyned with pride which is a forerunner of destruction Prov. 16.18 Secondly it reflecteth imperfection and insufficiency upon Gods wisdome and word For it is lesse dishonour to God that a man doe a sinne against the word then a good duty above the word The one argueth frailty and imperfection in us the other in God Thirdly it submitteth not it selfe to the righteousness of Christ but men in it goe about to set up a Saviour without Christ and against him Rom. 9.31 32. with 11.7 Christ is indeed our Wisdom 1 Cor. 1.24 and Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 Jer. 23.6 Vse 1. To prevent and refute the mis-applying of this Text to the reproach and discouragement of growth and forwardness in grace and Christian duties Even the Heathen Philosopher Aristotle could say Though vertue consisteth in a mediocrity between two extreams yet not in a mediocrity of degrees of goodnesse but in a hyperbole or excesse Politic. l. 7. c. 1. Yea it reproveth the despising of legall duties for though they be not righteousnesse yet they are gifts of the Spirit restraining from sinne constraining to duty and a greater gift from God then riches or honour Brasse is good onely it is counterfeit when it is put off for gold Vse 2. To disswade and direct from all this excesse of righteousnesse here forbidden not from the duties but from taking them for our righteousnesse when we have lived long in them they are either our righteousness imputed or inherent Quest What would you have us to doe more Answ 1. Know why Christ is Good as Matth. 19.17 feel your First Want of him and faith in him John 16.7 8.2 Worth of him Cant. 4.10 Secondly Listen duly to the word for some promise doctrine or example of grace in which Christ is wont to convey his spirit to lost souls to beget Faith 1. Either perswading us of grace from God to our souls in him Psal 119.43 2. Or at least setting up him in our hearts as our soveraigne good Psal 73.25 36. Thirdly If you feel him not applying promises to you nor himselfe in any word of grace with power pray over the promises and meditate on them they wil so give faith Observe if this doe not utterly pull down all our high thoughts of former worth in our selves Prov. 30.2 and do not make us sensible of our own disability to any duty 2 Cor. 3.15 If the Lord thus carry us forth it will take us off from overmuch righteousness which will leave us destitute and desolate of Christ for our justification and of the spirit for our sanctification Beware likewise of resting in works of good intention without or beside the word Sincere righteousnesse may be overmuch prized when we first Presume to walk in the strength of it and not of faith Matth. 26.33 35. Secondly when we discern no defects in our best duties Neh. 13.22 Thirdly when we think we have earned any reward at Gods hand by it Luke 17.10 Eccles 7. v. 17. 17. Be not overmuch wicked neither be thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time BE not wicked overmuch though the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not be not overmuch wicked but do not wickedly overmuch but yet if we take it as is translated the sense is the same To be wicked overmuch implyeth two things 1. Aggravation of sin beyond the word 2. Multiplication of it First to make a mans selfe more wicked then the word maketh him So excessively wicked as thereupon to shut out a mans selfe from all hope of mercy or otherwise worse then he is This excesse a man that is convinced of the emptinesse of his righteousnesse which he prized overmuch before is apt to sink into even to despaire Cain who before thought himself as righteous as his brother and his sacrifice as acceptable as his being convinced by God of his wickednesse sunck into despaire of mercy Gen 4.13 Hence also some think they have sinned against the Holy Ghost Others that they have quenched the Spirit when as rather the Spirit hath enlightened and awaked them But this sense doth not fully answer the opposition in verse 14. though it answer well enough to verse 16. Secondly the phrase may well be translated Do not evil much that is Do not multiply transgression as Amos 4.4 The word is used in this sense Sin is multiplied either 1. By continuance in it Rom. 6.1 2. By growth unto full measure of iniquity Math. 23.32 A curse Doctr. Excessive aggravation of sin and all continuance and growth in sin is accompanied with folly and followed with untimely death Sin is excessively Aggravated when it is made First greater then can be forgiven as Gen. 4.13 See the Original So when we judge we have sinned against the Holy Ghost when we have onely lost the comfort of the spirit Secondly Greater then will be forgiven in regard either of our present hardnesse of heart which we despaire of softning or in regard of our person which we